Hi,

Susan: Thanks for putting the link it.

Ok, I hope I can safely assume that in a cumulative version, we'd go from the first-most day to the twelve-most. Does that make sense in English?

But as can be seen from the link in the message above: Every four days, a chorus comes along of:
Jolly old hawk and his wings were grey
Sent to my love on the twelfth most day

If this was a cumulative song, I see three options:
* Every time a fourth day is reached a chorus is added, which means it'll always have the same place in the sequence, but the number of lines before the first chorus varies with the day.
* The choruses always stay the same distance from the day being sung. This means the number of lines before the chorus remains the same, but the place of the chrus in the sequence changes with the day.
* The Watersons inserted the extra choruses as, singing it non-cumulative, they'd have only one repetition of the the title line otherwise.

Additionally, the first days have half lines. How would this have been handled when an odd days was sung for the first time?

Would there be sources saying more on this, or maybe closely related song that do? And as always, are there sources that give a specific tune for this?

Bye,
                                                                Mysha